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The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma by the mid-17th century. At the height of their power in the early 18th century, the Osages had become the dominant power in their region, controlling the area between the Missouri and Red rivers. They are a federally recognized tribe and based mainly in Osage County, Oklahoma. Members are found throughout the country. Nineteenth-century painter George Catlin described the Osage as "the tallest race of men in North America, either red or white skins; there being few indeed of the men at their full growth, who are less than six feet in stature, and very many of them six and a half, and others seven feet." Missionary Isaac McCoy described the Osage as a "uncommonly fierce, courageous, warlike nation" and Washington Irving said they were the "finest looking Indians I have ever seen in the West." The Osage language is part of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan stock of Native American languages. Native speakers live mostly in Nebraska and Oklahoma. They originally lived among similar speakers: the Kansa, Ponca, Omaha, and Quapaw in the Ohio Valley. The tribes may have become differentiated after leaving the lower Ohio country. |